Rebirth of Hyatt Newporter

Andrew Edwards

After three years and $13 million, a local hotel has a new name and a

new look.

Today will be the first day the Hyatt Regency Newport Beach will

officially use its new moniker, hotel executive Robert Alter said.

Formerly known has the Hyatt Newporter, the hotel underwent a

two-year overhaul to create a new identity.

“[The name is] a way of telling our customers that something has

changed here,” Alter said. Alter is the chief executive officer of

Sunstone Hotel Investors LLC, a San Clemente-based company that owns

the Newport Beach hotel.

Sunstone bought the Hyatt Newporter in December 2002 with an eye

for upgrades. Over 2003, renovations were done to the hotel’s 407

guest rooms. Last year, the ballroom, lobby and restaurants were

remodeled.

Between 50 and 100 rooms were closed at a time during the project,

Alter said. Sunstone lost about $1 million in profits during 2003

because of the reduced room capacity.

“The challenge always is [that] this is a very busy hotel and to

take as few rooms out of service and to do it as quickly as we can,”

Alter said.

The hotel’s face-lift came at a time when new luxury hotels are

making the local hospitality scene more competitive, Hyatt Regency

Newport Beach general manager Bruce Brainerd said. In Newport Beach,

Brainerd cited the 2003 opening of the Balboa Bay Club & Resort as

having an impact on the local business. The Montage Resort and Spa in

Laguna Beach and Dana Point’s St. Regis resort are other high-end

newcomers to the Orange County hotel business that older

establishments must contend with.

“Everything has changed,” Brainerd said. “The timing was right.”

The changes will include Brainerd’s job, he said. He is slated to

take a job as general manager of the Hyatt Regency La Jolla next

week. Colleen Kareti, the current general manager of the Hyatt

Regency Los Angeles, will take over the Newport Beach hotel.

The hotel’s new look is an attempt to bring a slightly more mature

atmosphere to the hotel, Alter said. In the lobby, a salmon color

scheme and a fountain have been replaced by a Moroccan-looking

Mediterranean theme. In the rooms, beach-inspired designs that

featured comforters decorated with palm trees have given way to

bedding with a discreet plant motif.

“It’s more of an upgraded, classier style,” said Tracie Ryder,

Hyatt sales manager.

The Hyatt Regency Newport Beach is scheduled to commemorate the

end of renovations today with a benefit for Laura’s House, a

nonprofit organization that aids victims of domestic violence in

South Orange County.

The Hyatt is not the only Newport hotel looking to create a new

look. The Four Seasons Hotel Newport Beach has recently completed a

spa, and a $60-million renovation project is underway at the Newport

Beach Marriott Hotel and Spa, said Marta Hayden, Newport Beach

Conference & Visitors Bureau executive director. Other hotels with

renovations in the works are the Sutton Place Hotel and the Radisson

Hotel Newport Beach.